Giraffe population declines, threatened with extinction

[Ax01]

link - http://voices.nationalgeographic.com...lative-plants/

The iconic giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), one of the world’s most recognisable animals and the tallest land mammal, is now threatened with extinction.

The species, which is widespread across southern and eastern Africa, with smaller isolated subpopulations in west and central Africa, has moved from Least Concern to Vulnerable due to a dramatic 36-40 percent decline from approximately 151,702-163,452 individuals in 1985 to 97,562 in 2015.


The growing human population is having a negative impact on many giraffe subpopulations. Illegal hunting, habitat loss and changes through expanding agriculture and mining, increasing human-wildlife conflict, and civil unrest are all pushing the species towards extinction. Of the nine subspecies of giraffe, three have increasing populations, whilst five have decreasing populations and one is stable.

a few more:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...inst/95203454/
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...news11#image=1


i saw this on the newswire yesterday. wow, how does this happen? the wild population sits at about 97,000. to me that sounds cool. it sounds like alot, but i'm no conservationist, scientist or smartie. the giraffe is so iconic but they are now a vulnerable species. ):

[piedlover79]

A 40% drop in such a short time is serious cause for concern

[Neal]

Wow. When you watch some of these movies and shows where the AI's or stuff talk about how destructive humans are, then you read this article and you realize they're right, even though it's just a movie.

[DennisM]

it's been said "we are the stewards of this planet". if so, we're doing a poor job.

[danielwilu2525]

As Stephen Hawking stated, if humans continue at this rate than planet earth has no more than 1000 years. Unfortunately, I agree

[Meerna]

I heard about this. I can't say I'm surprised though, humans have been messing up this planet for a long time.

[Trisnake]

This is what we call mass extinction... The long accepted background (or pre-human) rate of extinction is 1 extinction per million species per year (E/MSY). Recent studies of the fossil record combined with phylogenic analysis of many different plant and animal species actually suggest a lower background rate closer to .1 extinction per million species per year, or 1 extinction per 10 million species per year.

Our current rate of extinction is 100 extinctions per million species per year. This takes into account species as of yet undiscovered by science. Using 1 E/MSY as the background rate, our current rate of extinction sits at 100 times the background rate, with expectations of it reaching 1000 times the background rate if no drastic change is made in world environmental policies. Using the new and widely accepted model of .1 E/MSY as our background rate, the current rate of extinction is 1000 times higher than baseline and is expected to reach 10,000 times the background rate if our trajectory is not changed.

It really is scary stuff. We're in the midist of the greatest extinction event since the dinosaurs suffered their end 65 million years ago. And there is no other cause but man for this massive loss of biodiversity.

[Zincubus]

How can we let things get so bad


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[zina10]

And then you have the many pictures of people "posing" with the Giraffe they killed.

Truly disgusting pictures.

I'm absolutely PRO hunting. If you do it right (no drunk shooting from a pickup, etc) If you eat what you kill. Or if you hunt to control population. (Over population ends up in starvation, disease, etc)

I'm 100% against TROPHY hunting. Esp. of endangered animals.

The only time this is EVER ok imho is if that specific animal was picked out by conservationist because it is old, sick or there are to many of them for that particular resort. And the money taken from this hunt, is used for conservation purposes.

[Zincubus]

I don't understand trophy hunting of any kind but of harmless creatures like Giraffes


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